Category:
Public Administration
Summary:
To serve our 3.3 million members who transact with CPF Board more than 40 million times yearly, we leverage on IT to transform and proliferate our services. The dividends from this transformation are lower unit cost of service, reduction of service counters and higher customer satisfaction.
To meet and continually exceed customers’ expections, we introduced my cpf in 2003. This is a holistic service framework to address the different needs of our customers. Over the years, my cpf has successfully leveraged on IT to educate and empower customers to self-serve via multiple channels and transact 24x7 regardless of their location.
Vision, objectives and goals:
Singapore has one of the fastest aging populations. At independence in 1965, life expectancy at birth was 66 years. For Singaporeans aged 65 today, it is 85. Today, those over age 65 number 315,000 (8.5%) and this will rise to 800,000 (19%) by 2030. Thus, the Board’s fundamental objective is to provide a framework of useful information, tools and appropriate channels to help our customers plan for a secure retirement. The Board also takes into account Singapore’s high internet penetration rate and strong economic and social growth, as these have produced an increasingly sophisticated population that desires value-added public services.
my cpf was thus launched to address the diverse needs of our customers distributed at both extremes of the IT maturity spectrum and to provide a range of services that fit our customer profiles. E-transactions have risen from 7 million in 2002 to 43 million in 2009. Today, 96.8% of the Board’s transactions are performed online. This reflects the successful shift in preferred service channel from manual to electronic which costs significantly less.
In our quest to leverage on IT to bring about a more seamless and comfortable service experience, we have taken pains to ensure that our less IT-savvy customers are not left behind even as service innovations are introduced. For example, with one click, the font size of the text on our website is increased and all text mechanically read aloud.
The Board was ranked second by Hitwise for users accessing Singapore government sites, after the Singapore Government portal.
Despite a sharp reduction of service counters from 89 in 2002 to 37 in 2009, the customers’ overall satisfaction with the Board’s services has risen from 95.9% to 98.8% respectively. This shows that my cpf service initiatives are well-received and the approaches rightly pitched for the less IT-savvy customer segment.
The role of ICT:
e-lobby and e-Ambassador. We proliferated a bank of computers (e-counters) in our office premises (e-lobbies) and stationed e-Ambassadors (Customer Service Officers, CSOs) to help customers to individually access information and perform transactions online. Once customers realised the convenience of self-service, demand for online services sky-rocketed. E-transaction rates spiked by 100% from 8 million in 2003 to 16 million by 2004 and exceeds 43 million today.
Biometric e-counter. Biometric e-counters are an alternative delivery channel created to help elderly customers who typically have difficulty accessing their CPF accounts because they have difficulty remembering their SingPass . With biometric e-counter, their identity is authenticated using their fingerprint and NRIC.
Islandwide Kiosks. To widely avail our e-services to customers without internet access, we tapped on over 600 islandwide kiosks managed by private vendors instead of setting up our own network of kiosks. By availing CPF services through AXS Stations , usage soared 44 times, from 9,950 in 2005 to 438,000 in 2009. Following the success of AXS, we extended CPF services through Self-service Automated Machines (SAM) in 2009 and iNETs kiosks in 2010.
iCARE (CRMS). The Customer Relationship Management System (CRMS), known as iCARE, is the Board’s central repository of customers’ information. iCARE enables the seamless sharing of customers’ information and the status of transactions across the organisation. With iCARE, we better understand customers’ needs through customer profiling, and can provide personalised service and individually customised marketing of key CPF messages.
m-Ambassador service. The m-Ambassador service allows our m-Ambassadors to e-transact on our customers’ behalf using Ultra Mobile Personal Computers (UMPCs) which ride on the ubiquitous wireless network. By integrating face-to-face transactions with e-transactions, we have extended our service reach beyond our Service Centres, right into the heartlands . This service is particularly helpful to non-ambulant customers.
e-Helpdesk. Customers can get real-time assistance either via online or the telephone when they encounter difficulties in using CPF e-services.
My e-Concierge. My e-Concierge is a simplified online form that allows customers to specify their requests. Customers can also use it when they are unable to locate the required online transaction or form.
Tell Us Once. Tell Us Once service brings convenience to our customers as personal information like bank details needs only to be provided once. The bank account number is displayed automatically each time the customer uses an online application that requires his bank account number. This minimises the need for the customer to remember this information.
Enhanced Ask Us. Customers can have their queries answered by using Ask Us, an intelligent search engine that recognises natural language. This is an easy and convenient FAQ tool for our customers to use.
Interactive and New Media. IM$avvy, a financial planning portal, taps on the growing popularity of new media and Web 2.0 technologies to engage our customers, particularly the young and more IT-savvy members. IM$avvy activities engage the community in a fun and interactive manner, providing a platform for them to network, gain and share knowledge on how they could better manage their CPF and money.
Social Media. Recognising the widespread use of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter by the IT-savvy, the Board taps on these interactive channels via IM$avvy to broadcast relevant CPF and useful financial information and tips. These outreach efforts allow us to engage our customers, strengthen relationships and earn the right to befriend them in their social space.
Target groups and impact:
my cpf covers every segment of the population by providing a variety of channels to suit different needs. The above-mentioned innovations fit into one or more of our different customer profiles, allowing us to meet the overlapping needs of our customers.
E-mail
RSS
Twitter
Linkedin
Facebook